How to Beat Corvus in Dragon Quest IX

Introduction

So, I'm sure you stumbled onto this article after wanting to pull your hair out for being unable to beat Corvus' second form, which is also the final main boss in Dragon Quest IX. (Corvus' first form isn't particularly worthy of its own article. :P) I can't guarantee that I can make this fight painless, but I will give you a character setup to strive for, that should work most of the time unless he gets lucky with critical hits or his attack routine. Let's start with the recommended character setup.

The Final Boss of Dragon Quest IX

Corvus' second form. Menancing, ain't it? :P

Suggested Character Setup

There are many ways to set up your party in Dragon Quest IX which can be a source of confusion for many players. While there's no right or wrong way to do so most of the time, I can tell you that for the Corvus fight, you want to have certain constants, even if the rest of your party differs:

Your party should be at level 35 as a bare minimum. Level 40-45 is preferable if you want to attempt this fight without having skills from other vocations.

Your whole party should be equipped with Life Bracers. 25 HP regeneration every turn adds up fast, and reduces the strain on your healer. Speaking of healers...

Your healer MUST have a Wand and 100 Wand Skill. Seriously, the myriad of MP boosters you get from the Wand skill tree become ridiculous, and this is going to be a long fight unless you're incredibly lucky. I had a Level 35 Sage doing my healing for me.

Your healer MUST have Multiheal. The ability to heal everyone is awesome in this fight, especially if he gets trigger happy with breath attacks. Good luck healing through that if he does it several turns straight and you don't have Multiheal.

If your healer is a Priest with Omniheal, that's even better, but that may be overkill for this fight.

A paladin is a recommended boost to your defensive setup. Paladins can Kabuff long before they hit 35, and their Coup de Grace is Knight Watch, which renders him/her invulnerable for several turns, as well as forcing Corvus to attack him/her for 1 or 2 of those turns. If you managed to get Forbearance, then Knight Watch becomes cheese, since the Paladin will absorb ALL attacks until Knight Watch wears off. I didn't have it in my playthrough though.

I recommend keeping your main character as a Minstrel, since they have the ability to cast Zing. Essential when Corvus decides it's a cute idea to kill your healer in one round.

My fourth slot was occupied by a Warrior, who was my damage dealer and resident Whipping Boy (as in the skill that shields an ally of your choosing. :P), but the Paladin could easily fill that niche if you don't want to use a Warrior.

Your party members should have their shield skill as high as possible. Reaching 100 in the Shield skill tree allows you to use a shield with any class and, among other things, gives you a whopping +6% chance to block with a shield. Blocking can also block critical hits, so this is very good indeed. :D

Corvus: His Battle Strategy

I can summarize it in one sentence:

Corvus' battle strategy is completely random.

Seriously.

I wish I were joking.

He does have certain patterns within his battle style but, for the most part, what he'll do in one battle will differ greatly from what he does in another.

Some constants in his chaos:

He attacks twice per turn. (Although, it's more accurate to say that he acts twice per turn, because sometimes he'll waste an attack on "laughing confidently" which does nothing).

After he uses Magic Burst, he won't use another attack for that turn. Either you're so unlucky that he Magic Burst you after he had already attacked once, or he does it as his first attack and skips his next action.

When his health is low, he'll start using Meditate more and more often. This skill heals Corvus for 500 HP. Since it's not a spell, Antimagic isn't going to stop him from using it. In any case, I doubt you can Antimagic him. (Bosses stink like that.)

He has the ability to land critical blows. His criticals do 210-220 damage, so I recommend dabbling in vocations that have a skill tree with +HP boosters, unless you fancy dying every turn. :P

He casts Kafrizzle. Since it's the only spell he casts, I don't particularly suggest you use Magic Mirror (a skill in the Shield skill tree) unless you truly feel like it. On the upside, a reflected Kafrizzle does upwards of 200 damage to Corvus, and he's reckless in casting (at times using it on a character he saw use Magic Mirror not more than two turns ago).

He uses Disruptive Wave at times, especially if you try to use a lot of buffs on your party. If you don't use too many beneficial spells, you may never see him use it. I saw it twice in my winning run.

He uses Burning Breath at times, but the chances of success are rather low so no worries. On the other hand, he likes to use a Sleep attack ("gleaming eyes") that always connects, so I recommend having some Panaceas in your inventory, just in case.

Suggested Battle Strategy

So, you have a level 35-40 party set up just like I recommended. However, you still need a good strategy to use against Corvus. My best piece of advice for you is to assume the worst. Assume he's going to land a critical every turn. Assume he will use two breath attacks a turn. If you can beat his worst-case scenario, his real attack sequence will probably be much easier to thwart.

Some general tips:

Have your healer use Multiheal (or Omniheal if he/she is a Priest and has learned it) every turn. I mean this, EVERY turn. You should be able to survive two breath attacks in one turn, but not four in a row.

When one of your characters is near death, use Whipping Boy with your tank character. This is especially important if it's the healer at death's door.

Know when to use your Coup de Graces. Just because you're able to use it doesn't mean it's always the best moment to use it. An obvious exception to what I just said is the Paladin Coup; use that one ASAP.

Stay Kabuffed at all times. Having a high defense prevents his regular attacks from doing too much damage. This won't stop critical hits though.

Smack Corvus hard with Psyche Up cheese (Use Egg On with your main character on your damage dealer and have your damage dealer Psyche Up. If you're lucky, he/she will be at 100 Tension by the end of the second turn). An attack at Max Tension does from 12x-16x normal damage, so you shouldn't need too many, as long as you don't get overeager and try to finish him off instead of holding back in a crucial moment, getting your damage dealer killed.

In Conclusion

This is an insanely hard fight to predict, and as such you should prepare your party as best as possible to withstand his relentless assault. If your party is set up adequately, I have no doubts that you'll prevail!

If you have any questions or suggestions on how to improve this article, feel free to comment on it in the comments sections!

Same here. I've got a team of 50's and I have only recently learned that Sage's have a multiheal ability. I'll try to get them to 60 anyway and see how that goes...

A.J. 4 years ago

OMG you only have to be 35-40!?!?! I've been trying to hit 70 and I'm in early sixties now!! ughhh I wish I saw this earlier -_-

Matthew 4 years ago

the article told me that you need to egg on your damage dealer but I am the damage dealer get it now, lord of the sword?

Matthew 4 years ago

just in case if you are wondering what sword I have I have erdrick's sword a 4 star weapon with 158 attack

Matthew 4 years ago

to be more exact I'm a lv 35 gladiator with a lv 45 warrior a lv28 priest and a lv39 mage (I killed the king of the house of git with that party)

Lord of the Sword 4 years ago

We HAVE to start back up this article! If anyone is listening, let's do it.

Lord of the Sword 4 years ago

Could you elaborate on that? A bit more info than "if you are the damage dealer?". For what? Stats? Gotta help me out here, man.

Matthew 4 years ago

what if you are the damage dealer what do you do now?

Lord of the Sword 4 years ago

All games must end eventually, even one as difficult and as massive as DQIX. That is one of the great sadnesses of video games and books: however big the programmer or author makes them, they still must end sometime, and you must move on to the next adventure.

Justin 4 years ago

I spent 250 hrs playing to get my team of 4 up to level 25 in every vocation (except luminary). My team was in the 30s and 40s upon facing Corvus. Pally had 550hp at level 42. The team obliterated him. He was a complete disappointment and i am actually really pissed off I invested so many hours. The grottos are repetitive and boring to me too :( I guess i spoiled the game for myself.

Lord of the Sword 4 years ago

Yeah, everything is going fine here.

You know... there is that new DQX game for... I believe the PC? You should check it out.

Author

Darrin Perez 4 years agofrom Puerto Rico

@Lord of the Sword: Hello there! Well, there wasn't a lot for me to do anymore in DQIX, besides max out the stats of all of my characters (which takes a LONG time) and try to get all of the Legacy Boss maps. :/

Hello, Winter! It's me again. I just wanted to say hi, since we haven't met in so long. It sucks that you don't play DQIX anymore, because you gave the best advice. Hope everything is going alright.

CB 4 years ago

thanks :) i think im gonna change him to a sage

Author

Darrin Perez 4 years agofrom Puerto Rico

Well, hello there DQ 9 player. I haven't played this game in ages, but it seems to me that you should be able to beat Corvus. If you get beat up by Corvus repeatedly, you could always get 100 Fans on your Paladin and get Reverse Cycle. This will reflect any breath attacks Corvus may use. You can use Magic Mirror (40 Shields) to reflect magic spells. Then, you just have your Paladin use Forbearance and block every non-physical attack for a few turns. Of course, that takes a LOT of grinding, and I don't feel like you should need it. :)

@CB: You need a Priest or a Sage, and Thieves are pretty bad unless you have a lot of different skills for them. Rangers make better Thieves than actual Thieves do if you get 100 in the Thief's vocation unique skill tree (VUST for short).

DQ 9 player 4 years ago

Ok so i have:

A paladin level 42

Strength 160

Hp 272

Attack 315

Defence 383

Sword skill 100

Martial artist level 43

Strength 191

HP 245

Attack 333

Defence 159

Staff skill 100

Priest level 42 (also the healer)

Str 89

HP 187

Att 163

Def 185

Wand skill 86

And a gladiator level 42

Str 237

HP 255

Att 390

Def 210

Hammer skill 100

So do you think i should be able to defeat corvus? I tried a few times and failed miserably. I was also thinking of making a character a sage, but i don't know. I want the sage to take a bit of pressure off my priest for healing. But raising a character from level one to 42 seems like a long ordeal, but i'll do it if i have to. Also, should i change weapons on a character? Any help is appreciated!

CB 4 years ago

And if i DO have to change... which one should i change? And to what?

CB 4 years ago

ok in my party i have

Minstrel (level 50)

Warrior (level 50)

Martial Artist (level 50)

Thief (level 50)

and i CANNOT beat him.. AT ALL! its really pissing me off. is there anything i can do to fix it.. without changing my party? :) i dont like changing it, cuz i only changed vocations once and then i have to train them and everything -___- but if i really have to... i guess i will

Lord of the Sword 4 years ago

The minstrel looks a bit low leveled to be facing Corvus.

The mage, warrior, and minstrel are good, but what would you use a thief for. Corvus doesn't have any steals, and they have mediocre attack and defence.

I would recommend changing the thief to a priest or sage and level it until it gets Multiheal.

What all that means: Level up the Minstrel, and change thief to priest/sage and level THAT up until it gets Multiheal.

carly 4 years ago

I have a level 43 warrior as my main character

I have a level 42 theif with fire claws

I have a level 43 mage

and a level 35 minstrel...

how do I beat corvus with these guys?

jilyforever 4 years ago

i've played dq9 before, but then i moved and my mum threw it out accidently :( i've bought it again though and i was wondering if you could give me some tips on how to start up again as i have not played in a year... Thanks!!

Lord of the Sword 4 years ago

@Winterfate

Hey, I'm back Winterfate!

I just wanted to say that the game automatically saves once you get an alchemiracle (or not) to prevent save-abusing. E.G. If you don't get an alchemiracle, you have to reset to the first in the line of that top tier line and start all over.

DQIX noob 4 years ago

Thanks for the info and for getting back so quick. Great article as well really helped.:-)

Author

Darrin Perez 4 years agofrom Puerto Rico

Well, I do know that they are actually the third highest tier of armor. To get the top tier of armor requires that you use the alchemy pot and roll a successful Alchemiracle. An Alchemiracle occurs 10% of the time that you use alchemy to make the second highest tier of armor.

So, in other words, the ability to max out any piece of equipment is dependent on luck. Better start save-abusing. :P

Do you know anything about the legendary armour set? I got them after fighting a grotto boss

Author

Darrin Perez 4 years agofrom Puerto Rico

Well, if I can still remember the answer to the question asked. :P

I haven't actually played DQIX in over a year, and I'm kind of busy with other things, but if you ask me a question and I can answer it, I'll do my best.

DQIX noob 4 years ago

@winterfate

Are you still answering DQ IX questions?

Sebastian Michaelis 4 years ago

I beat Corvus with a party of 2 gladiators and two priests. All were level 40. I pumbled him with the gladiators while the priests healed when necessary. The priests were set on auto. (Focus on healing) I finished the quests for level forty: thief, minstrel, warrior, gladiator and priest. It takes awhile but it’s worth it. You gain: Gritty Ditty, the chance to counter normal attacks, the chance to do double damage on a normal strike, Wave of relief, and the thief was just good for normal battles: it sometimes steals items on its own. I gave my gladiators moonwart bulbs and 2 of the revive leafs. I gave one of them the healing dew as well. The easy way to gain skill points is to go to Alltrades Abby and change your characters vocations. When you gain skill points: DON’T USE THEM. Use them for the skill you want, I recommend maxing out the shield and the paladin’s virtue (You gain resilience and 80+ to your natural hp!). Then use the rest to max out your preferred weapon. If you have a ranger, I recommend maxing out the bow then taking the quest from that guy at swinedimples. The first request is to use Flutter Disaster on 10 pekerals. Easy. If your box skill is maxed, exit the building then enter and talk to him again. He’ll have two requests: the first one is kill 10 boss trolls with Rain of Pain, the second one is requested after you tell him you beat the boss trolls. You have to give him Wonder Pants, I don’t have the recipe but you should have it. He’ll give you a scroll giving that character the skill: Shining Shot, it does around 100-300 damage to all enemies and is great when training. My gladiators had shields and maxed virtue as well as my priests. I head one extreme magical mending with a wand, as well as maxed enlightenment (For the Sage vocation) and he had 400 mp. The other priest had exceptionally high magical mending and a bow. I equipped two spirit bracers to the gladiators and they had tons of mp, so I kept using parallex. Remember this was the long way to victory but it was flawless. Happy questing! 

mimi 4 years ago

ok! i finally beat corvus! this way works too: if you have a level 50 minstrel (me), a level 37 mage on fight wisely, a priest of the same level on focus on healing and a level 44 warrior doing your all-out attacks, the whole party has power shields, you the mage and the warrior know gigaslash and one of you has the gigagash booklet, then you're pretty much good to go and should make it while losing only one party member if you're lucky. and those of you who wanna try plants, poisons of death curses on mister corvus, those ore useless.

Yuki 4 years ago

Yo, Winterfate, I'm not questioning your skills or anything, and you helped me greatly, but if you really want help go to this site:

ok i have a lv.37 mage and two lv.39 warriors, and i'm also lv. 39. my mage know caduceus, both my warriors know gigaslash, and one has a spirit bracer, do you think this willbe enough to beat corvus?

Ellie 5 years ago

Thanks! I'm keeping my minstrel gonna hav a padalin, priest and warrior. What lvl should they be b4 I try to defeat Corvus?

Author

Darrin Perez 5 years agofrom Puerto Rico

@Ellie: You can unlock the Sage vocation by completing a quest found in a bookcase in Gittingham Palace.

And yes, you should change one of your characters to Priest or Sage. A Mage is only good if you already have a good healer.

@Darkesse: Well, I haven't played DQ IX in months. I'd get your Mage's Sage level to around 40-ish and then switch to Sage. You need someone who can Kazing or Multiheal. Kazing lets you bring someone back to life with 100% probability and Multiheal heals the entire party.

The best way to level up any character before you beat the game is by going to the Bowhole and beating on Liquid Metal Slimes. If you luck out and get a grotto that leads to a high density of Metal Slimes, you can beat on those as well.

Hope this helps!

Darkesse 5 years ago

I cant beat Corvus but I have a reasonably good party:

Minstrel (lvl 59)

Ranger (lvl 44)

Mage (46)

Paladin (41)

My Ranger is my best healer and also a big damager. Im training my mage as a sage also. Whats the best way to level him up?

PLEASE RESPOND WINTERFATE!

Ellie 5 years ago

Uhhhhh :L

First of all what's a sage and how'd u get one?!?! And then my team is all level 49's and they r minstrel, warrior, thief and gladiator. Should I change one to Mage or a priest or sommin?

Never mind I FINALLY beat Corvus AND got the Starflight AND beat Corvus a second time!!! :) When I got Stella back I did my happy dance for almost TEN MINUTES!

In my winning run only my Mage died!!! :) In my second run Corvus thought it was cute to kill everyone at least TWICE!

Yuki 5 years ago

@Guest

Your thief is okay BUT, if you REALLY want to beat Corvus turn him into a Mage. Level up your priest ALOT (At least lvl. 40).

Keep your Thief a Mage.

*Spoiler Alert*

You're going to want him a Mage for Leviathon (again), and Yore (Another form of Master of Nu'un), AND Nodoph (Another form of Nemean)(All from Story Mode Extra Quests)(You need to do finish other quests(Check another website for all quests).

guest 5 years ago

i have been trying for days but i cant defeat corvus, then my bro started and beat him before me with 4 gladiators!!!!!

anyway, is my team ok:

lvl 47 armentalist (me)

lvl 50 warrior

lvl37 priest

lvl 43 thief

ps. apparently i should turn my thief into a mage but i dunno????

Yuki 5 years ago

Hey, long story short my brother got this game so I got jealous and got it myself. Made myself a team of me (Minstrel: 35), Martial Artist: 34 and Thief: 33. Got to Corvus with my brother's help (like level 60 Minstrel) couldn't beat him. So I started over, now I'm at Corvus again and this is my team:

Minstrel: lvl 45

Mage: lvl 43

Priest: lvl 44

Warrior: lvl 45.

I would get my brother to help BUT, he beat the game got to LEVEL 99 beat Baramos and REVOCATED. Now he's lvl 40 sucks to be me...

-Your average American gaming preteen

Yuki 5 years ago

I have a brother who has the game, so I got a little jealous and got it myself, I got to Corvus (the second time) with his help and my team:

Minstrel: like 35

Martial Artist: same

Theif: 34

and my team stank.

So I started again now and my team is

Minstrel: 45

Mage: 43

Priest: 45.

I've tried like, 5 times and I died. :P And I can't get my brother to help because he got to level 99 beat baramos (legendary grotto boss) and revocated. What to do???

-Your average American gaming preteen

Desprate 5 years ago

Dude heres my team

gladiator- lvl 38

warrior-lvl 40

priest- lvl 35

mage- lvl 37

some how i dont think my teams working so good and my hero the main character is my main damge dealer so using egg on would be kinda of a waste of a turn or it could be very risky anyway any tips on how to deafeat him with this team plz and thank you

MsAvenger 5 years ago

I have a minstrel on level 40, another minstrel who is my healer on level 40, two warriors both on level 40. I cannot beat Corvus because at the end I only have on warrior fighting him and he keeps on healing continuously.

Crystal 5 years ago

I have a level 39 minstrel (me) another minstrel level 38 (my healer) and two warriors both on level 39. Should I change my vocations or will I be right you reckon??

@Jack Runal: That's really impressive. I think the hardest part of Corvus if you try to solo him is the fact that he can put you to sleep and that all of his attacks will be centered on the same character. If you can get past that, I'd think it'd actually be a bit easier solo.

They all have the weapon book from the quests so it be a bit easier. i found a way to kill corvus in 4 or 3 turns but the bad thing is that i have to raise the tension of my warrior to 100 and use gigagash but i have to worry about the disruptive wave so what should i do

Epos77 5 years ago

I already beat corvus, i just want to get cameo gear and defeat grottos.

My team is a warrior, he was a gladiator and a minstrel

a martial artist who was armamentalist, a priest and a sage

what characters should i change vocation, and to what vocation.

Author

Darrin Perez 5 years agofrom Puerto Rico

It most definitely should be. If you're having trouble beating Corvus, try getting more stat boosters from other vocation skill trees.

Good luck! :)

Epos77 5 years ago

Is a team with a gladiator, an armamentalist, a sage and paladin a good team?

Author

Darrin Perez 5 years agofrom Puerto Rico

Hello there shadowveil13! An easy way to estimate Corvus' attack (or the attack of any monster for that matter) is by seeing how hard its criticals hit for. In this case, Corvus does between 210-220 damage with his criticals. Hence he has from 194 to 226 attack. (Criticals do between 90% and 110% of a character's or monster's base attack in damage, unaffected by armor)

shadowveil13 5 years ago

By the way, I looked..... well skimmed through all the comments of how and or what strategies to have when beating Corvus. So this is what I know about Corvus, also if I am missing some stats of him let me know.

Stats-

Health-6000

Attack-???-let me know, otherwise he is weak if you have high defense

Speed-depends on how fast your team is

If there is anymore info of Corvus you guys know let me know,hope this helped =).

As long as your team stays lvl 99s, DOESN'T use too many boosters (Disruptive Wave), and wearS life bracers, you're good!

(*Changes capitalized*)

Lord of the Sword 5 years ago

@awsome fighting kobi

well, afk (lol, u cheat and look at the abbreviation), by the way it's awesome, not awsome...

but, I digress. As all of your party is lvl 99, so are mine, and I did it LEGIT. As I said, as they are all 99s, you should have no trouble at all and if you have good enough weapons (and life bracers or sacred armor, by the way those don't stack, winterfate if you get this add it) you should beat him. Just power your guys up (not too much though or he'll use DISRUPTIVE WAVE, which should be called OH GODF*** IT WAVE, which takes away all positive boosters on your team, including ones from skills, magic, etc. unless you use Soul Asylum Co-op de Grace, use all four coup de graces in one round w/ a minstrel and/or a... I can't remember! GOOGLE IT. XD).

Conclusion: As long as your team stays lvl 99s, don't you don't use too many boosters (Disruptive Wave), and wear life bracers, you're good!

And winterfate, add the thing about sacred armor and life bracers not stacking plz!

RICHU 5 years ago

hi read the tips and it was HARD beating corvus even thou I read it. i beat him with lvl 50s. but i would have prefered lvl 65s. if you are ever going to make any more of these plz add this in thanks! plus i had really good healing armor and thats what saved me while i was battling corvus

awsome fighting kobi 5 years ago

I have a action replay and got all of my guy to lvl 99 (sorry for cheating) and im just about to battle corvous and advice help?

blake 5 years ago

ok this is what i need i have 2 minstels man person and other female 1 fighter uses a staff ans one wizard all round level 45 or higher and cant beat stupid corvus

oicochuu 5 years ago

seriously all of you should just go fight LMS in bowhole. you'll be strong enough in no time at all.

Vickydog 5 years ago

After like 30 tries to beat Corvus i still couldn't do it. Once i read your post it took 2 tries to beat him, thanks so much.

Any tips for the existing vocations? Because I seriously don't feel like changing the vocations. But I did hire an armamentalist (lv. 38), a gladiator (lv. 37) and a paladin (lv. 15) later in the game for the quests, so should I switch them in instead?

omega13 5 years ago

hi if i want a really good sage would it be good throughout the game before i can turn into one to level up the priest and mage VUST??? oh and if you invest 100 points in enlightenment does it stay with you no matter what vocation you are.

because if it does this would be good for omniheal

Cool black 5 years ago

Epic

Lord of the Sword 5 years ago

@Christopher

Wait... you're lvl 91 and you only have a platinum sword?

That's from all the way back in Bloomingdale!

Why not get a sword from any of the towns after? (preferably Upover)

If you found the "rusty sword" in Realm of the Mighty (RotM), use it along w/ 9 glass frits and 1 orichalcum in alchemy to make erdrick's sword, which has a crapload of attack.

Or a fire blade, one sunstone, and... i believe 3 lava lumps. If not 3 ll, I'll tell you later.

Second Attempt 5 years ago

this is my second time trying to beat this game and i would say gladiator is a better damage dealer and dont use archers or ppl with bows in general and u should use a goddess ring on your healer before you fight so you can restore mp after you beat the monsters to get to corvus in the first place. Just my opinion

Lord of the Sword 5 years ago

On this historic day, I, Main Character Taran, Lord of the Sword, have my first full party of lvl. 99's, on this day of March 20, 2012.

oh yh any tips for whhere to lv up ibeen at tower of nod and slime hill but at slime hill cant find any type of MS.PLZ HELP???oh yh is there anyway i can download quests from DQVC sincei use WPA key which is not supported by Nintendo.

Lord of the Sword 5 years ago

Although, you need a tank, suggest you change the 1 priest back to paladin, because on the harder bosses, YOU NEED A TANK!!!

Lord of the Sword 5 years ago

On the other hand, you only have 1 melee damage dealer (warrior). You can (if you want) change sage to gladiator (the gladiator's VUST = massive melee damage when completed). If you don't like my advice, disrgard it.